When I Get What I Want, I’ll be Happy

No, no you won’t.

Getting an A in that class is not going to solve the problem. You’ll have another class after that. And another one, and another one… until you get a boss. When you get that metaphoric “A” from your boss with a pat on the back, you’ll feel good for the day. But do that consistently for long enough and you’ll have to do better in order to get that pat.

We live in an age were accomplishments are what make a person. Where happiness is directly related to the amount of success an individual has achieved. I used to believe that also, that a person could only be happy if they were successful.

But in retrospect, the accomplishments that I have, haven’t given the lasting joy I thought they would. Graduating high school when I was in high school was my entire life for four years. Upon my graduation, It was everything I thought it was. The parties, late nights and crazy adventures lasted all but a week.

Of course, there are happy people out there who aren’t successful. Who are, in fact, by every definition of the word, failures. Even knowing of their happiness, I pitied these poor souls who seemed to know nothing, working useless, pathetic lives without a cause.

What I should have saw were that these people had perspective, they didn’t sweat the details. As it turns out, it they who should have pitied me all along.